How much wattage do I need?

nos879Aug 18, 2009, 4:15 AM

I have already purchased an Asus M4A78 Plus Motherboard, along with an AMD Phenom II X4 955, and Radeon HD 4850. I am going to purchase OCZ ram and pplan on overclocking my computer. The question is how much wattage do I need?

I have been looking at the Corsair 650 watts is it too much or overkill since I am on a budget.

Youre welcome. Too many times its the other wya around, where people want to skimp on their psu, and that spells trouble down the road.Nope, always get a lil more than you think you need in a psu, as it allows for upgrades, and, if you keep it for awhile, its ages, and its perf goes down, as the caps eage etc

A high quality 550 watt power supply such as the Corsair 550VX can easily handle any single video card and overclocking. Typically it is a 750 watt psu and a single video card configuration that is overkill. Since you're looking at 650 watt psu you're kind of in between.

I was just over at newegg.com checking out Corsair power supplies. Newegg is currently offering free shipping on both models. There are mail-in rebates too. Not counting the rebates the current prices are $89.99 for the 550 and $99.99 for the 650. A difference of $10.00 ($20.00 difference after mail-in-rebates) tempts me to say go for the 650.

I do understand about being on a budget and you do have alternatives. A very good choice would the the Antec Earthwatts EA 500 power supply, currently available at Newegg for $69.99 and shipping is free:

The Earthwatts 500 has earned favorable technical reviews. The unit is actually made by Seasonic for Antec and is capable of delivering 577 watts of power. Here's a link to one of the technical reviews:

I just checked several video card power consumption references that I have bookmarked. The principle reference is a video power consumption article published last January right here at Tom's hardware. A single ATI Radeon HD 4850 video card uses about 110 watts and a little over 9 amps at full load. That's not very much power.